Broadway Icon Lea Salonga is One Awesome Gamer!

A lot of people know her as Kim of Miss Saigon, the friend-zone girl Eponine from Les Miserables, and even the singing voice of Mulan. Behind the theater lights and during ordinary days, she is one avid video gamer!

Aside from being a Filipino Broadway musical singer and actress, Lea Salonga is a regular columnist in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and she has been writing her thoughts on things for the popular newspaper since 2008. Aside from her usual real life talks and sharing her experiences in theater, her recent columns show a different side of her and that was her love for video games.

Her most recent column talked about Altus’ popular game Persona 5 and expressed that she has spent around 153 hours on the game and probably even more. Salonga also said that video games her primary getaway after a long day of rehearsals and work.

“If only real life were this simple: instigate a change of heart to make a bad person good.” She said in her column.

“I play video games. My preferred genre is the RPG, or role-playing game. This is when I take on the character of the game’s protagonist. In “God of War,” I am Kratos, a Greek demigod seemingly straight out of the film, “300.” In “Assassin’s Creed: Origins,” I am Bayek of Siwa, an Egyptian assassin. In “Tomb Raider,” I am Lara Croft, unearthing artifacts and disposing of enemies.”

Lea Salonga has also done something in anime too as being the official English dub voice of Yasuko Kusakabe from Hayao Miyazaki’s anime film masterpiece My Neighbor Totoro.

Although she is still focused on Persona 5 at the moment, we can’t wait for her next video game review. Would be nice if she can give us her take on Skyrim—or probably The Witcher? What do you think?